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Many people do not know this but Islam did not start at the time of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) – it started at the time of Adam and Eve.

Muslims believe that there is only one God in this world, the same God that Abraham, Moses and Jesus worshipped.

What is your belief about God?

Muslims believe God is one and that He created the heavens, the earth, human beings, animals – everything in this universe.  He has no partners and there is no object worthy of worship except Him.  This means Muslims do not believe that a stone, a tree, a cow or a human being is God and they do not worship any of these.  In other words, Muslims cannot fathom Jesus being God or part of God.  This would go against the very nature of monotheism – of God being strictly one. He does not need anyone but we need Him.  He is the most merciful, He sees everything, hears everything and knows everything.  And nothing is comparable to God.

So why do you call Him Allah?

When Muslims use the word ‘Allah’, that does not mean a different god, a moon god or a cow god.  Allah is just the Arabic word for Almighty God in English or Theos in Greek.  Arab Christians and Jews also say ‘Allah’ because it means God.  We prefer to say ‘Allah’ because it accurately means ‘the God’, i.e. the One God without any partners because if you say God in English, some people might think we are talking about Jesus.

Why are there so many religions?

Muslims believe that all of the prophets from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, David, Solomon to Moses, to Jesus and Muhammad etc. (peace be on them all) came to teach the people the exact same message – that God is one, without any partners and to submit your life to God.  This is what we call Islam because the meaning of the word Islam is “submission”, i.e. submit to the will and law of God.  So, in this sense, we believe that all prophets were following Islam, or ‘Muslim’ – someone who submits to God.  Islam is more than a religion, it is a way of life.

Each time a prophet came, some people believed in his message and they established the religion (Islam).  Then after some generations, the original message was lost and people started creating their own religion, mostly creating partners with God (ex. a cow, human etc.). So then God would send the next prophet to bring them back to the original message of Islam and the cycle would continue.

So, this is why Muslims believe in all of the prophets and all of the books, which are the spoken word of God– the Torah, the Gospel, the Quran, etc. and also believe in God’s angels and the Day of Judgement.

You can say Islam is the pure Christianity that Jesus taught and the pure Judaism that Moses taught before some priests, rabbis and people changed it to manipulate their followers and control them.

If God created us, would He leave us to figure things out on our own?

Just like most mothers would not leave their babies to the streets to take care of themselves, God would certainly not leave his creation without taking care of them.  But how does God provide us with this guidance if we cannot hear Him?  Through the Quran and scriptures He left us with full instructions on how to live the best life in this world and in the afterlife and through the prophets He sent us to teach us the guidance.

Because submission to God is a way of life and not just limited to a religion that you practise once a week, the guidance of instructions from God must cover everything in our lives such as the spiritual, emotional, economical, social and family aspects etc.

So, when people ask Muslims why Islam is strict with so many rules, they do not view it like this.  They consider these guidelines as ultimate guidance in living the best life.  Imagine you were lucky enough to have the richest man in the world mentor you on how to succeed financially, the best family counselor in the world mentor you in family and marriage aspects, the world leader in civilization and politics guide your country on how to be the most advanced nation and the wisest spiritual mentor guide you in gaining the closest relationship to God.  Would you consider those rules and restrictions in your life or guidance?

What is the purpose of my life?

And the biggest guidance is to answer a question that most human beings ask themselves at some point in their lives – What is the purpose of my life? Why am I here?

God gives us the answer to this in the Quran.  The purpose of our lives is to worship Him and to submit our lives to Him.  Read that sentence again.  The purpose of our lives is to worship God and to submit our lives to Him. 

We will be asked about this when we die and are resurrected on the big judgement day.  We will be questioned about everything we did and if we followed God’s guidance and did good deeds.  God will reward those who submitted their life to Him will punish those who did not and this is the ultimate justice system.

Free will or not?

God knows everything that we will do but He gives us a chance to live out our lives and gives us the free will or choice in order to provide evidence to us when we are on the Day of Judgement.  In this way, on that day, no one can provide excuses that God’s verdict is not fair.

This is a glimpse to what Islam is so that when you ask a Muslim a question about Islam, you can keep in mind that he or she will answer you from this context.

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photo credit: NPCA Photos

Some Greeks have given me that uncomfortable look when I tell them I’m learning Arabic.  You know, the one that says ‘Ugh, you traitor, why don’t you just convert to Arabism* while you’re at it.’

Learning Arabic is in no way a threat to my Greek culture or any culture for that matter.  It’s actually quite the opposite – it’s enriching.  If we use that logic, is learning French, German or Spanish a threat? 

Just like some people enrol in classical Greek language courses to study the Bible, many Muslims love to learn the classical Arabic language to study the Quran.  The Arabic Quran vs. the translated English version is the difference between the sea and a glass of water.  The Arabic Quran and the translated Greek version is the difference between the sea and a glass of dirty water. 

So, after years of searching, studying, stopping, getting frustrated, studying again, I discovered the best formula for new Muslims to save them years!  I call it the ‘Fast track formula to understanding Quran like it’s your first language’.

1. Learn the Arabic alphabet and how to read simple words.
2. Take a modern Arabic 101 class (ditch modern Arabic after this).
3. Take a Quranic Arabic beginner’s course (10 min. a day for one month).
4. Enrol in a Quranic Arabic program like Al-Huda Institute or similar.

This formula is guaranteed to save you years of struggling and frustration.  You can finish steps #1-3 in about a year and you’ll know around 50% of the words in the Quran!  Step #4 involves more work for 2-3 years but afterwards you will understand 100% of the Quran!  How amazing is that?

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* We actually laugh at people who make up ridiculous words like Arabism. 

Photo credit: Samir Malik

Note: For serious Arabic students, you may want to read this as well:  Now is the time to learn Arabic.

Last summer I made a resolution – not exactly an oath, but a strong resolution – to memorise the last part (the 30th part) of the Noble Qur’an by end of Ramadan.

Now, compared to the daunting task of memorising the whole book achieved by hundreds of thousands of Muslims around the world – most of which aren’t even Arab or don’t even speak Arabic, the task ahead of me seemed a humble one.

Luckily enough, I found myself advancing at a good pace and ended up memorising the 29th part too.

Two Ayas, among the many ayas in this section of the Qur’an that made me think often ever since were the deceivingly simple Ayas 38 and 39 of Surat Al-Haaqqa (The Inevitable):

“So I swear by whatsoever you see, And by whatsoever you don’t see”.

Now, when we humans swear by anything, we intend to give an extra boost of strength to our arguements.

But when Allah, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, in all His glory, swears by elements of His own creation, then it is to draw our attention to His glory that is manifest in those elements.

Example? Ayas 74 and 75 of Surat Al-Waqi’a, where Allah (swt) says: “So I swear by the locations of the stars. And verily, that is indeed a great oath, if you but know.”

These two Ayas – though they don’t consist a scientific miracle per se – do draw our attention to a fascinating reality: when we lift our gaze towards the sky on a clear moonless night and see that spectacular view of the stars, what we see is actually zillions of spectacular “video clips” of past events seamlessly merged together!

Only God knows what minute part of the visible heavens is actually still there; since Alpha Centauri – the closest star to us outside our solar system – is 4.37 light-years away. In other words, its light takes 4.37 years to reach us!

On the other hand, the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the farthest objects visible to the naked eye and that is approximately 2.5 million light-years away!

Now back to the two Ayas of Surat Al-Haaqqa…

Consider what a man – any man – could see at the time when the Qur’an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (in the 7th century)… Pretty much the same as a person living nowadays could see if he were living a primitive life in a remote part of the world with no access to modern technologies.

As little as that may be, it is enough to fascinate a wise person with a reflecting mind.

But now let’s consider just some of the things that we can see nowadays that were unseen in the 7th century:

 Clear images of distant stars and galaxies – thanks to powerful space telescopes.

 The surface of the moon and Mars in detail – thanks to space travel and space probes.

 The Earth itself – as a planet – thanks to developments in the field of aerospace.

 Aerial views of continents, countries, cities and homes – thanks to the development of aeroplanes and reconnaissance satellites.

 Inside views of our own (living) bodies – thanks to endoscopy.

 Extreme close-ups of insects, flowers, organic tissue, cells, crystals, snow flakes, germs, etc. – thanks to light micorscopes.
The list can go on and on. Yet this is nothing but a fraction of “the unseen” (things not seen without the aid of technology).

Thus, we realise that when we take in the full meaning of these two deceivingly simple Ayas and give our minds full rein, we could spend perhaps ages just pondering, wondering and – hopefully – getting humbled by God’s awesome ability to create.

And so we also see that mankind’s “creations” (technological advancements) have only served to enhance the believers’ admiration of God’s own incomparable and immatchable creation – a fact exemplified in the following beautiful Aya (the 11th Aya of Surat Luqman):

“Such is the Creation of Allah. Now show Me what is there that others besides Him have created; nay, but the transgressors are in manifest error!”.

Source: Kathimerini (Newspaper in Greece)

Al Maamoun, one of the most enlightened leaders of history, requested of Leon 5th neither money nor land. But only permission to acquire a collection of scientific writings that were stored by the Byzantine Empire. The caliph of Baghdad, once Leon gave his permission, launched one of the biggest in history of civilisation translation. The result was the exact version of the Ancient Greek literature in Arabic. In that period (700-1000) there were more translations of Aristotle in Arabic than in all the European languages.

As Mr K.P. Romanas (Professor of Philosophy in University of Aegean) claims, “for the communion of the Medieval Islamic world a lot has been written in Europe but hardly anything in Greece (…)”. Even in Europe, who received the light of the Greek culture to a great extent from the Islam of the Arabs, the conscience of this debt has only recently started to register and increase (..). It is obvious that Hellenism which found its supposed continuation in Orthodoxy would only possibly acquire the same enemies as Orthodoxy.

In the middle ages (2050-1050) the most renowned Aristotelian philosopher in the West , mostly widely known today as  Averroes ( Abu-al-Walid Muhammad ibn-Ahmad ibn-Muhammad ibn-Rushd), was an Arab from Cordova. He and a few others famous thinkers are considered to a great degree as the forerunners of the Universities in Europe. Averroes was at his time opposed from all religions as one of the greatest heretics in history. It was not of no small significance to teach mortality of the soul as a result of its close dependence to the body.

But in the making of Modern Greek history there is  no Averroes or Avicenna (Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina), but only Plython Gemistos ( his intervention is significant and is connected with the outbreak of Renaissance, but the fuel had already been accumulated by the Arabs of the 10th and 11th century). Somehow it determined our relationship with Islam. With half truths and always from “above”. from each authority with its interventions or the lack of them.

Greece has a unique feature compared to other European countries. It comprises the establishment of an “old” Muslim minority while in recent years it hosts also another “new” Muslim minority. Mr D Christopoulos (assistant professor in Panteion University) expresses how in Greece today “new” and “old” Islam co-exist.

One would expect that the existence of the “old” Islam would make things easier for the “new” Islam. However the new reality shows that in the collective social conscience Islam exists as close as to the stage of folklore. Engraved in Thrace is recorded as an act of a local matter. That’s why there the hijab, the 300 mosques and the Ottoman cuisine have been reported as “couleur locale”.

There might be no problem with the 300 mosques in Thrace, but there is a problem with the one mosque in Athens. Maybe the application of a small part of urban law of the shariah might not be a disturbance in Thrace, but in Athens the Muslims are excluded from all civil rights. For example in 2003 the then Internal Affairs Minister, Lampros Papadimas, decides that the entry in the registers of Thrace  for marriages solemnized in front of the Mufti of Thrace a) Muslim with non Muslima b) Greek national with foreigner c) Muslim with Muslim residing out of Thrace is not allowed .

In this way Constantine Tsitselikis, assistant professor of the University of Macedonia, observes, the possibility of the ceremony of Muslim marriages for out of Thrace residents is cancelled as they (the marriages) are not recognized under Muftia.

Here begins another dark story. The “new” Muslims of Athens (approx. 150,000 and 15,000 from the “old” Islam ) as they have not got the civil rights of the Greek people and having lived under the arrogance of the state, they will resort to legalize love, divorce , inheritance through Islam. Meeting the “old” in Thrace.

But since 2003 even this solution is forbidden and out of bounds. For obvious reasons the Greek state dreads the osmosis of the “two” Islam . So this fear justifies any guilt of their absolutely illegal decision.

They also have no right to death. To bury their own, they must either transport the body of the deceased to Thrace or to their own countries at a huge cost. The result: “They work to be buried and not to live”.

It goes without saying that the issue of coexistence with Islam does not seem simple or easy. But what we are witnessing these past days is the establishment of a social stigma against a religious group. Already treated unequally: by a group of religious rights (religious freedom), they are a group of collective target and monitoring as a matter of preventive security guarantee.

In this frame we watched a parade in the TV channels of some “unlikely presidents” of associations with just a stamp with “secret services accent”. And they «discover» foreign embassy forces by recognizing employees, but ultimately do not specify how they met them.

We attend some classes and then get really into it and then after the class finishes, we abandon it. But then, maybe a year later, we get back into it but we realize that we forgot everything (!) and we have to start all over again.

And the cycle continues…

It’s not something I want to give up on (even though when you see those humungous verb charts, you really do want to give up!). After years of battling back and forth, I realized what the problem is.

See, the thing is that if you ask a Muslim why he wants to learn Arabic, 99% of the time, he will immediately say to understand the Quran.

But then why are we wasting our time learning about shopping, travelling or passports in Arabic??

For those of us that don’t have the luxury of full Arabic immersion programs (available if you move to an Arab country), there’s no use in spending eight years to learn Arabic!

I received this really beautiful email with all you need to know to get started on Quranic Arabic. It’s pretty long (it probably takes 10 minutes to read), so get comfortable. Please take a few minutes out of your busy schedule — it’s well worth it. Don’t let shaytan let you pass it by!

Download:

Now is the time to learn Arabic

[digg=http://digg.com/political_opinion/For_all_you_polytheists_out_there_get_a_load_of_this]

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a Hellenic polytheist forum (yes they do exist!) where someone insisted (without proof) that Jews, Christians and Muslims worship different gods, so of course I had to chime in to correct this misconception.

Religion must come with proof, so this one is for you.

The word, Allah, is the perfect description that Arabic Jews, Arabic Christians and Muslims (of all cultures) use to refer to God.  For proof of this, all you have to do is go to Arabic lands and talk to people of these three faiths to see it.  You can also look at the Christian Bible to see that they translate God as Allah in Arabic.

In fact, before English was officially used in 1066AD, what do you think people used to refer to God? It would be impossible for Moses, Jesus or Muhammad (peace be upon them all) to say the word God because English didn’t even exist then!

As for the etymology of the word, we can break it down to root letters, which is very similar in Hebrew, Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke -peace be upon him) and Arabic.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Note: Christians do believe in the Creator, Allah, but attribute partners or idols to Him.

Did Jesus say Allah?  See for yourself!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Note: for the Passion of the Christ movie, they went to the only place in the world where people still speak the language of Jesus – Aramaic in Syria.

As for the meaning, it literally translates to “the God”, referring to the only One true God.  This word is very unique (unlike English) because it has no gender (cannot be made male or female) and it cannot be made plural. 

In other words, this meaning rejects any human characteristics like god or goddess and also shows that there are no other gods that exist purely from the uniqueness of the word “Allah”.

How amazing is that?!

Note: for more information, visit http://www.godallah.com.

Contrary to popular belief amongst Muslims, Islam does NOT mean peace.  The actual word, Islam, has a very powerful meaning.  So, let’s get into it.

Arabic works by root words, containing a combination of root letters.  For example, the word for peace is salaam ( سلام ),

Once you know a root word, you can fairly easily know 100 derivative words because they all use the same root letters. These words make up a root family.

So, here’s the catch.  Even though the word Islam shares root letters salaam (s-l-m), it comes from a different root family so it does not carry the exact same meaning as salaam (peace) in Arabic or ειρήνη in Greek.

But it doesn’t stop there.  Because it uses the same root letters, it has a connotation of peace in its meaning as well.  In fact, it also includes connotations of other words too.  Five words in all. Watch this 1 min video for the five words:

Click here to view the embedded video.

So, next time you hear someone saying Islam means peace, you can say, hey, wait a minute,  the word Islam actually means:

Surrending your will to God’s will, submitting to God’s commandments, doing this in true obedience and sincerity and peace.

And so what do you predict the word Muslim means?

A Muslim (مسلم) is simply the one who surrenders their will to God’s will, submitting to God’s commandments, doing this in true obedience and sincerity and peace.

Are you a Muslim?